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> The NFL has allowed players to hijack the sport platform to make their own political points.

Is this the same NFL that started forcing their players to stand for the Anthem in 2011, and the same NFL that did a deal with the US Department of Defense to allow patriotic displays of support for the troops during games?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/11/04...

You've got a lot of nerve saying the NFL "allowed its players" to hijack the game with poliical bullshit. The NFL led the charge, and made money doing it.

The NFL has already been politicized. It has mostly tilted right wing. The rah rah pro military stance after 9/11 (which I overall agree with) that still continues now. The Breast cancer awareness ribbons. The debate over the Washington Redskins name. The concussion issue. The harassment and trouble gay players have. Controversy over coaching hiring.

There have been a bunch of political issues that have beset the NFL in recent years. NBA players while not kneeling during the anthem, have taken a similar stance as Kaepernick in recent years and their ratings are similar to the years before.

Other than the pro-military how is any of the rest right wing?

Do you think the NFL's refusal to allow Dallas' players to honor slain police officers is also right wing?

I was speaking in general that the NFL tends to lean more right wing, not these particular issues. I probably should have made that more clear.

It doesn't matter what you perceive the tilt as. My point is that the more a sport delves into politics, the more people it pisses off. A big reason people watch sports is escape. If they tune in to ESPN and hear a bunch of political bullshit, they just start tuning out. That's not what they're there for.

620k subscribers didn't bail because they disagreed with Colin Kalpernicek (sp?), they bailed because ESPN is still acting as if cable channels still have a future.

> someone could just go all out for and not worry about it.

except if you are black and want to be a coach [0]. Then you should worry, because you're probably not going to be able to!

80 of the NFL's current 85 offensive coordinators, quarterbacks coaches and offensive quality control coaches are white, including all 37 with the word "quarterback" in their titles.

[0] http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17101097/staggering-numbe...

How is that relevant to the parent comment? The fact that the percentage of black coaches in the NFL is somewhat less than the percentage of blacks in the overall American population could be the worst injustice ever in the history of the world. That doesn't change the fact that people don't turn on a football game to have someone's politics rammed down their throat, and if you keep insisting on doing that, they'll go watch something else and leave you hanging.

I interpreted the parent comment as saying "Football was the last refuge where black/whites/etc can all harmoniously enjoy a common activity." I'm saying you can't call it that when there's racial bias baked into the very sport. You can't pretend its politically neutral.

Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. That still doesn't change the fact that if you keep aggressively lecturing people about it, they'll stop watching your network.

Thanks for making my point for me.

And the national anthem and fighter jet fly overs aren't political?

They were also paid for by the military as a form of advertisements.

> Another aspect of life has been politicized for no good reason.

Life is political. If you have the relative privilege to think that parts of life can remain completely neutral and value-free, it's probably because you are relatively privileged and not directly affected by the issues that people feel compelled to speak about.

In any case, I'm nearly 100% sure that ESPN's drop in viewership doesn't have to do with SJWs peeing in people's Cheerios, but rather the overall trends towards cord-cutting, tv-shedding, etc and ESPN not yet jumping on the train of ala carte tailored sports packages.

Enjoying any aspect of life without being bombarded with messages of social inequality is another privilege that I have to feel guilty about now huh?

Poor you.

No one told you that you have to feel guilty. But if you were on the wrong side of the inequality, I don't think you would simply get to escape it. It's always there, so yes, better to see it. Doesn't mean that you're not allowed to have fun, play games, make love, buy frivolous things or any of that. No one's talking about regulating your pleasure. I'm just saying that, yes, it is in fact a privilege to get to pretend that one lives in a world where sports in a simply a non-political realm divorced from social conditions.

It's easy to nod along and say "come on, stop complaining, you need to be aware of this stuff" when you already agree with the views being peddled. If Colin Kaepernick and friends had been taking a knee to protest against abortion instead of police shootings, I suspect you'd be singing a different tune real quick.

If fullshark were on the side of inequality, she probably wouldn't feel guilty about it. She'd be delighted every time it came to light. "Do you know whose lives really matter?" she'd say to some kneeling footballer with a grin on her face, "millionaires'!"

It's the people that mostly agree that are being annoyed and turned off by antics that make everything political.